Project Runway's Michael Kors Wins a Competition

Project Runway’s Michael Kors Wins a Competition

The reality-show judge snags an award for his fashion work.

-Jane Farrell

On Project Runway, Michael Kors is a pretty good guy. In other words, he’s no Simon Cowell. And so the veteran designer had a characteristically unpretentious reaction to the news that he was getting a Lifetime Achievement Award he’s getting from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

“Holy crap!” he told a reporter from The Daily Beast. “That was my reaction.”

Although Kors, a Long Island boy, has been in the business for thirty years, he’s still only 50, which makes him the youngest designer ever to win a CFDA award. He’s made a career out of striking simple clothes that help women look beautiful. Kors’ creations have been worn by everybody from Jessica Simpson to Michelle Obama, and he’s got less expensive products for sale in Macy’s and on QVC.

But he’s probably become best known for being a judge on Project Runway, the wildly popular reality show that pits young fashion designers against each other. And although the judging process provides an unending opportunity for snarkiness, Kors concentrates on telling the designers what they need to know about the flaws in their clothes.

He’s our secret weapon on the show,” executive producer Desiree Gruber told The Daily Beast. “His design aesthetic is so incredible, and he also has a kindness to him, so the contestants know he’s honestly there to help.”

One of the points Kors makes about design today is that the concept of “age-appropriate” clothes for women has gone out the window: “You don’t hear anyone say, ‘Oh well, that’s great for a girl in her 20s or 30s.’‘That would look good on a woman in her 50s. Now those rules are gone. Blake Lively and Blaine Trump will go out wearing the same dress.” (The Daily Beast)